The Benjamin F. and Wilhelmina Fay House is located just south of Prairie du Chien’s traditional downtown. It is a two-story Italianate residence, with a small, rear wing. Both sections are veneered with Milwaukee cream brick. The house and wing were both completed in 1881.

The Fay House is significant as an excellent Italianate house, incorporating segmental-arched openings, polygonal bays, and broad eaves with cornice boards and scrolled brackets, distinguishing elements of that style. The house’s elaborate exterior ornamentation and interior woodwork is particularly fine and shows the influence of the Queen Anne style. Queen Anne flourishes include the carved stylized flowers enriching the wooden trim on the front porch and the polygonal bay window, and the fan-shaped sunbursts above the front porch columns. On the interior, the lavishly decorated newel post on the main staircase features blocks with carved flowers, fluting, and an oversized knob with multiple, three-dimensional leaves.

Benjamin F. Fay (1822-1920) settled in Prairie du Chien in 1853 and opened a general store. He was a grain and livestock dealer from the arrival of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad (later a part of the Milwaukee Road) in 1857 until 1871. Fay then became a land agent, a career he pursued into the early twentieth century. Wilihelmina (Lockart) Fay (1848-1920) was born in Prairie du Chien. She held title to the property until the Fays sold it in 1911. The Fay House has been owned by the Antoine family since 1956. It is a private home and is not open to the public.